- Conference
- 2009 National Disabled Members' Conference
- Date
- 3 July 2009
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Over the last few years the department of Work and Pensions have started making big changes to policies and procedures that help disabled people gain and then keep employment.
Who qualifies for this help from the various projects is no longer a question of whether you are a disabled person or not, but also what type of employer you have, what type of work you do, and whether it is a proper job or a training course.
“Work Step programme” for example, they plan to put this program out to contractors in the private sector. They also plan to restrict its use to training programmes that is the training you require when you start a job.
History has shown that when public sector work is contracted out to the private sector both the staff and the end user suffer as the private contractors, to make as much money as possible from any work they carry out, cut the terms and conditions of the staff and make it virtually impossible to qualify as an end user of the program.
This conference therefore calls on the National Disabled Members Committee to work with the National Executive Committee to:
1)Continue to support the campaigns that are fighting to keep programs like Work Step in the hands of government bodies that will not be looking to profit from working with the disabled of this country.
2)Highlight the changes and how they affect the disabled that are trying to get and/or keep employment, contrary to the government backed propaganda statements “that the disabled don’t want to work” or that “all the disabled need is a training course to make them employable”
3)Lobby MP’s, MEP’s and local councillors to highlight concerns of these
contracts going into the private sector
4) Publish a briefing paper for regions and branches highlighting who and under what circumstances members qualify for help under the various government projects.